Summary

This guide explains everything you need to know to get started in cutting: How to ride, how to acquire a good beginner's horse, equipment, the scoring system, training cutting horses, and showing to win.

Author Notes

Leon Harrel became a full-time cutting horse trainer and contestant in 1968, and since that time has established himself as one of the most successful trainers and winners in the history of the sport. He is an integral part of the National Cutting Horse Association, and has a keen interest in helping others learn how to ride and train their own cutting horses. Leon has won virtually every top cutting competition there is to win, and two of the horses he has ridden to victory were subsequently inducted into the NCHA Hall of Fame. He won the NCHA world championship in 1978, and has won consistently at the prestigious NCHA Futurity ever since 1971, including two first-place wins, the most recent of which was in 1987. He served as an executive member of the NCHA from 1974 through '81, served as NCHA president in 1982, and is now a lifetime director and vice-president. Today he maintains an impressive training stable on his ranch at Kerrville, Tex., and specializes in training young horses